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Blue Moon founder now brewing THC-infused craft beer

ARVADA, Colo. — In an unassuming garage behind a Colorado home, the idea to combine two of Colorado’s most well-known products was born: THC-infused craft beer.

Keith Villa, the founder and former head brewmaster of Blue Moon, retired in January and wanted a new challenge. So he and his wife started a new and unrelated company to brew beer, take out the alcohol and add THC.

“In the end we want our customers to be enjoying the taste and smell of a craft beer with the effects of cannabis, not the effects of alcohol,” he said.

Ceria Brewing was born. The first production batch of Grainwave Belgian White Ale will be brewed this week.

Since federal and state law doesn’t allow products to contain both drugs, the beer, containing alcohol, will then be put in a de-alcoholization machine to remove it down to the state-mandated ABV levels near zero. It’s then taken to another facility where licensed professionals add and mix in THC extract.

Each bottle contains 5 milligrams of THC.

“This is not a product just to get you high. This is a project for people to enjoy cannabis in a way that is socially acceptable,” Villa said.

He hopes to get in on the ground floor in a section of the industry that could take off at any moment, similar to his venture into the early days of craft beer.

The first four-packs of Ceria Grainwave should be on shelves in dispensaries in mid-December.

Villa says it will be the first craft beer infused with THC in Colorado. Similar products have started being sold in Nevada dispensaries by cannabis companies that also make edibles and other drinkable forms of the drug.

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